Patricia Spottedcrow puts her things away and greets other prisoners in her dorm-style building at the Eddie Warrior Correctional Center on the first day of her incarceration at the site. Spottedcrow received a 12-year prison sentence for selling a small amount of marijuana to a police informant with her children present in Kingfisher. ADAM WISNESKI / Tulsa World
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Patricia M. Spottedcrow of Kingfisher, OK was featured in a Tulsa World article on Feb. 20 and published in media across the state through the nonprofit journalism group Oklahoma Watch.
The 25-year-old received a 12-year prison sentence in October after selling a total of $31 in marijuana to a police informant in December 2009 and January 2010. Her mother, Delita Starr, was also charged.
In blind guilty pleas before a judge, Spottedcrow received prison time while her mother received a 30-year suspended sentence.
The judge said Spottedcrow’s four young children being in the home at the time of the drug buys prompted the higher sentences. Neither she nor her mother had prior criminal convictions.
The judge said in a previous interview that first-time offenders are not usually sent to prison. Instead, other alternatives including treatment, are typically found.
Oklahoma City attorney Josh Welch read the story and said he decided to represent her without charge.
“I’m familiar with that county and had other cases there and what happened is so egregious and wrong,” Welch said.
Spottedcrow must serve at least 50 percent of her sentence before being eligible for parole, Welch said.
When Spottedcrow was taken from court to the jail to start her prison sentence, some marijuana was found in her jacket pocket. She received a two-year concurrent sentence for drug possession.
A state Department of Corrections pre-sentencing report stated Spottedcrow was highly likely to re-offend and did not seem to take the charges seriously.
“Let’s say everything said about this woman is true. … It’s barbaric and prehistoric to have a 12-year sentence for that and have to serve 50 percent,” Welch said. “It’s illogical.” Read more.